PwC Asks That You Look No Further Than the Firm’s Loss of a Client to Ernst & Young as Evidence of a ‘Fiercely Competitive’ Audit Market

Last month when PwC filed a paper with the UK's Competition Commission that contradicted the notion "that the audit market is static and uncompetitive," a Grant Thornton partner damn near soiled himself. Recently, there has been a development that James Chalmers, PwC's head of Assurance in the UK, would like to call attention to:

Gas exploration group BG has chosen Ernst & Young as its new auditors, after 16 years with PwC. BG, formed in the demerger of British Gas in 1996, will see E&Y take on the audit role from the start of its 2013 financial year. […] In response to losing the BG contract, James Chalmers, PwC's UK head of assurance said: "We operate in a fiercely competitive market where all participants win and lose audits. We are committed to delivering high quality audits for the benefit of our clients and their shareholders."